The System of the Vedanta according to Badarayana's Brahma-Sutras and Cankara's Commentary c8.s6.t7.1

c8.s6.t7.1

After the Indians had early attained the knowledge that the key to the enigma of the world is to be sought nowhere else than in the Self (*Âtman*), they asked themselves further which part of our Ego is to be regarded as the clearest expression of the thing-in-itself—unconscious life which in waking and sleeping goes tireless on its way, or conscious life in whose preponderance consists the advantage of man over other beings?—As it seems to us, both these paths were taken; in earlier times principally the first by the identification of the Prâṇa (breath, life) with Brahman and the corresponding theory of an entrance into Brahman in deep sleep (where according to Çatapathabr. 10, 3, 3, 6 all organs are absorbed into the life); later there was manifested an inclination to the Âtman rather in the subject of cognition within us, and to characterise it therefore as draṣṭar (Brih. 3, 7, 23. 3, 8, 11), prajña-âtman (Kaush. 3), prajña âtman (Brih. 4, 3, 21. 35), prajñâna-ghana (Brih. 4, 5, 13) etc., and to regard the entrance into Brahman in deep sleep rather as an unconscious because objectless Cognition (Brih. 4, 3, 23) or even as a fancifully elaborated ascent to the highest light (Chând. 8, 12, 3); Chând. 7 would there be a polemic of the younger school against the older and Kaush. 3 an attempt to reconcile the two; until finally the extreme intellectualism of the system of the Vedânta was reached, for which Brahman is pure intelligence (caitanyam), while the Prâṇa in the shape of the Mukhya Prâṇa sinks to a mere Upâdhi of the soul.